Topics: US News, World News, News, Crime, True Crime
In 1999, 23-month-old Connecticut toddler Andrea Michelle Reyes was abducted from her New Haven home.
This week, however, in a shock twist of fate, a now 27-year-old Reyes was found alive and well in Mexico, with investigating authorities finally having answers to the questions they've waited over two decades for.
After the youngster first disappeared, police blamed Rosa Tenorio, her estranged mother. Tenorio, who had no primary custody over Reyes at the time, also vanished from the area around the same time.
A felony warrant for Custodial Interference was subsequently issued after an official investigation was opened by the New Haven Police Department.
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Sadly, however, despite a mass police search in the years that followed, neither Tenorio or Reyes were found by US authorities.
As per the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, another felony warrant was released 10 years after the mother-daughter duo seemingly vanished into thin air.
In the last 25 years, Reyes' father travelled to Mexico several times, claiming to have 'searched tirelessly' for his missing daughter, paying particular attention to Puebla - the fourth largest city in the Central American country.
The municipality has a population of more than 1.5 million people and is located to the southeast of Mexico City.
He'd been encouraged to do so by staff at forensic genetic genealogy company Othram, after the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System placed Tenorio and Reyes there.
Following assistance from the FBI, a series of age-progressed images of Reyes were developed, and an official missing person's profile was created.
The heartbreaking cold case was re-opened by New Haven Police Department in 2023, however. After using social media, issuing several search warrants and conducting interview reviews, a 27-year-old woman they believed could be Reyes was found.
The woman then contacted her supposed father, and after submitting a DNA sample, it was ruled that the duo share a 'father/daughter relationship', as per DNASolves.com.
The woman ruled to be Reyes lives in Mexico, but it remains unclear whether she still has a relationship with Tenorio.
It is also unclear whether Reyes and her father have since built a positive relationship.
According to local police, he wishes to remain anonymous.
At the time of the toddler's disappearances, Reyes' father 'did not have any contact with Rosa or his daughter, despite going to Mexico himself several times to look for her in person', authorities ruled.
